Magpie Target Keen On Newcastle Move

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

8:17am Sunday, January 5th, 2014

Commented 10 times

It seems that Everton defender Johnny Heitinga is keen to join Newcastle United, after he has just turned down a move that had been worked out between his club Everton and West Ham United, who are second bottom of the Premier League, and only Sunderland are below them.

Johnny Heitinga – Newcastle target?This story has been persistent over the last few days, so we have to believe there is some truth in it, and the 87 times capped Dutch International will be available for a pittance, since his contract at Everton has only six months to run, and he seems he has no future at Everton under new manager Roberto Martinez.

Heitinga can play in multiple positions including center-back, right back and in defensive midfield, so we suppose he could be a decent squad player for Newcastle, and he has huge experience in the Premier League.

But Newcastle have more defenders than we’ve had for a long time with Steven Taylor, Yanga-Mbiwa, Massadio Haidara and Paul Dummett all fighting to get into the starting back four of Debuchy, Coloccini, Williamson and Santon.

It’s true that Fab Coloccini is out for at least four weeks, but it would still be a little strange if Heitinga joins Newcastle this month.

Remember…I think you played football yourself way before modern football was introduced 😉

It is one of the seven sins of modern football to double up on a player defensively. That means the fullback takes care of his own – there will be no babysitting because it creates so many other problems.

Neither should the fullback ever move inside to mark a player to free up a center back.

On of the most important aspects of modern football is forward thinking fullbacks – these are the ones who are doing the crosses and the make sure you have more players in and around the box and at the same time crowd the midfield.

What you are describing is just another British 4-4-2. It has is moments as well, but it demands alot of stamina and certain players who are hard to by these days. Plus it is very weak against technical teams who move the ball around and press high. Way to much negative running!

Scuttlebutt has it that the squad got a huge bollocking for partying too hard over the holidays. Jonas Guttierrez and Steven Taylor in particular went over the top. I thought when watching us against West Brom that the jaded appearance of the team was down to more than physical exertion.

I think heitinga would be a decent signing due to his available positioning, only not sure of his quality at this moment in time (tht many dutch caps sort of proves this as a positive move, but form/being benched for so long later in careers can have a considerable negative impact…literally no idea if this is th case though…).

To my mind we need another properly defensive minded midfielder for when cheick is inevitably suspended, and gael’s still a bit young, so cover for tht postition over th next few years would be decent enough (anita/sissoko as the leg work midfielder; cabaye/ben arfa as th creative central one [as pardew tends to play] as 4-3-3/4-5-1 is when we play best in my opinion [ps should use ben arfa as a winger and get tom ince/remy cabella in as cabayes’ apprentice..if only..] ).

Plus, without debuchy we tend to shift santon about and bring in another left back, almost doubling the effect of the right full back’s absence, so cover for this position would be decent enough too.

Colo being injured or maybe leaving soon/taylor needing to grow up a bit/yanga finding his feet/still not sure about williamson (even though i probably should be), again says not just a centre half, but a centre half with other position experience, seems a decent enough shout.

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health update

My latest bone scans and CAT scans were completed this week and I met with my oncologist Dr. Dhruva to go over the results.

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and hasn't spread over the last six months.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

There is no cure for stage 4 cancer - but there are treatments which attempt to prolong life.

I am upbeat with the results and remain in awe of the doctors and nurses at the Rex Cancer Center here in Raleigh, North Carolina

It's truly humbling to see how inspiring they are with their patients.

Ed Harrison

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